Plan B
by LillyHalliwell
Summary: Brian wanted a real day off. He needed to get rid of Mike and Ike first.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I have this posted on Archives of our Own and

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own anything.

Brian wanted another day off. The last one didn't work out. This time, he planned on a simple relaxation day with Sinbad. Maybe he would watch a few hours of TV and order pizza. He was running low on his emergency stash on NZT but he was not running low on his other stash of smoke-ables. He only had one problem, or two problems. It depended how you look at it, but he had to get rid of his babysitters, Mike and Ike.

He's fooled his mother a few times when he was younger, or maybe his mother let him believe so. Mike and Ike always got to his safe house by seven am, so he did not have a lot of time to prepare for his new day off. He has to make some tea to at least fake a thermometer, but he had to get rid of all the evidence as well. Rushing to clean up the evidence would make him look flushed and clammy. If he drank some tea around 6:30 am, that would give him plenty of time to get rid of the evidence.

The next step would be raising his body temperature enough to appear sick. Jogging in place? It would make too much noise. Plan B is the old warm washcloth trick. It would work if they try to check his forehead to check if he has an elevated temperature. Timing everything would be critical for his day off and lazy day in to work. Chasing bad guys was good, but a day off sounded way better.

Mike and Ike showed up at exactly seven am. He dozed off around 6:40 am, after making sure all of the cleaning was done. If he overslept, something would look off. They knocked on the door, and he ignored it. Mike slapped his face lightly in hopes of waking him up. It took a while, but Brian was up, although "feeling" lethargic.

Ike thought something was up. Brian was known to pull stunts so he informed Rebecca of his suspicions. Meanwhile, Mike already grabbed the thermometer, which showed a false positive for a fever. The thermometer claimed Brian had a fever of 100.0, but Brian knew that was false. Naz and Rebecca were both informed about his sickness and he was left behind in the apartment for the day.

Rebecca was finally caught up with paperwork for the morning and with no new cases, decided to take a longer break to go check up on Brian. Ike had mentioned to her that he might have been faking a fever, but she wanted to see it for herself. When she got to his apartment, she didn't bother knocking and used her key to get in.

Brian was on the couch flipping though the channels; he didn't hear the door open or Rebecca walk near him.

"Brian!" she yelled, startling him.

"Oh, hey. I didn't realize you were coming over." He replied.

"Ike thought you were faking and wanted to have a day off and use NZT again." She explained, sitting on the empty seat beside him.

"Beer o'clock?" He countered.

"Sure. What's up?" Rebecca knew that was his code for "we need too talk".

"I needed a day. I felt like I'm not myself anymore, so I wanted to relax and smoke all day like I used to. I'm not on NZT, just high on weed. Things are changing really fast." Brian finally admitted.

"Brian, please remember to trust me, and tell me the truth. If you needed a break that bad I'm sure we could have worked something out with Naz. I hate playing catch up."

"Ok, I'm really sorry. Next time, for real, I promise."


	2. Plan C

The second time Brian Finch tries to take a day off was a suggestion from his sister Rachel. She had wanted to spend time with him in the city, maybe go shopping and then bar hopping at night. Brian was too busy almost every day because of the FBI but he wanted to please his sister.

"I'll try my best." He sent her a text message one boring Monday morning. He spent the majority of the day learning Farsi. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in the language; language learning on NZT was incredible. But spending time with his sister was better.

He was currently on NZT and his NZT conversation buddy showed up to talk things through with him.

"Dude! Naz would never agree to it!" He tried to reason with himself.

"Maybe not Naz at first, but we gotta get Rebecca on board with the plan first. A day off exploring the city might not sell. Gotta find the perfect excuse to sell." He countered.

Thinking out loud always helped. His sister's birthday was in a few days. That could work. Just gotta make sure Rebecca is in a good mood first.

Brian found Rebecca at her cubicle during her lunch hour. Not too surprising, it had been another busy at the office. He hoped this was a good chance to run things through with her.

"Hey how's it going?" He greeted.

"What do you want, Brian?" Damn, Rebecca always knew when something was up.

"So, it's Rachel's birthday next Friday. Think the CJC can manage without me for the day?" He tried being honest. It didn't work in school getting out of the assignment with the Iliad, but just maybe it would work with Rebecca.

"Is that the truth?" Rebecca knew about his last unscheduled day off and hoped this was not another prank to get out of work and on the streets on NZT.

"Honest, she texted me the other day, wanted to go bar hopping in the city. Hoping I could come and probably so she had a place to crash with her friends after." He continued with the truth, hoping honesty would score him some much-needed brownie points with her.

It worked. She smiled and responded, "I'll talk to Naz. I don't see how it should be a problem, but she may not like other people around the safe house. Your sister should be good, but it's no longer a safe house if a bunch people know about it."


	3. Two-rific

AN: I added two OC characters to the story as Rachel's friends. I'm terrible at descriptions so I made them twins haha.

Brian had everything set up for Friday with Rebecca and Naz. They both had agreed Brian could spend the day with his sister on her birthday so long that Mike & Ike tagged along with them. Mike was bummed, but he had a plan to lose his babysitters.

He told his sister to meet him in Time Square in the morning. They would spend the morning in Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum located on 42nd Street. There were plenty of wax figures around so hopefully they would be a great way to blend in and lose his bodyguards. He has come to love making them run errands for him, but Rachel's two friends, Bri and Ellie were not aware of his involvement with the CJC and he wanted to keep it that way.

Bri was hot, gorgeous, whatever. She was 5''5' and had long wavy light brown hair and light grey eyes. An odd combination, but it was intriguing. She was slim, probably a weightlifter, and had a smile that would brighten any room. Ellie was her twin sister; they looked pretty much the same, except Ellie's hair was much closer to dirty blonde than light brown.

Best part was, they were both single. He wanted the next part of the plan to impress at least one of them. Right after ditching Mike & Ike, he planned on taking them to Beer Authority, named for its close location to Port Authority. If all worked well they could hang out their until 4 am but he was hoping they would end up at his apartment before that.

His plan had to work. Granted, they probably wanted to kill a few hours shopping but it was something he was willing to chance for a shot at a date with Bri and Ellie.


	4. Fantastic Four

p class="MsoNormal"AN: Sorry guys, I made the last chapter so short. As an apology I wrote a second chapter today./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Mike and Ike met Brian at the safe house promptly at seven am, "forgetting" that he had the day off that Friday for Rachel's birthday. He was already awake and thinking too much, so he decided to do a quick workout routine while they wait for nine am to meet his sister. As he was doing reps of push-ups he thought of the many places he could lose Mike Ike at the museum./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"He loved to read comic books, so he thought about acting over-excited at the Marvel exhibit to try and lose them. Rachel could not know the plan, thinking she might screw it up somehow without meaning to. They would visit most of the exhibits and then their last stop of the museum should be the Marvel exhibit so that they could act super silly and hopefully escape Mike Ike./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanIf all fails, he planned on taking Rachel on a shopping spree in larger stores to help get rid of them, if they walked fast enough, they had a good chance of being free./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Rachel was at his apartment promptly at 9 am. They ate breakfast together, Mike Ike joined in, and Brian Co headed out for their trip to Times Square. Normally he wouldn't go there for the day, but he wanted to make his sister happy and to impress her friends./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"The plan at the museum worked out perfectly. They were able to lose both Mike Ike by the time they hit the Marvel exhibition. Ike was easier to lose, but Mike knew the Finch siblings were definitely up to something and stuck around for much longer./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Eventually they left laughing in the direction of Beer Authority. Bri and Ellie were supposed to meet them for lunch and a few drinks. They found the twins and went inside./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Their host was a cute redhead, tall and slim, and a part-time actor. They got to know each other. Everyone decided to go for a burger and fries, except for Ellie (she was a vegetarian so she ordered a veggie burger instead).span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanThen the first and second round of beers went by. The group, now tipsy, decided to head to the shops and have fun./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Ellie and Brian spent most of the time waiting outside while Rachel and Bri shopped. Brian thought she was really cute and that maybe, just maybe, she might be into him as well. It's not every day that a girl turns down a chance to go shopping after all./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""So what do you do?" Ellie caught him off guard. He couldn't tell her the truth, as it was all a national secret, but he couldn't lie either and lose her trust./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well I work for the FBI usually, specifically the CJC. I'm not an agent, more of a consultant of sorts." He hoped he was vague and specific enough that she wouldn't ask any more questions. He knew his work was dangerous and that the less people who knew about it, the better it was for all of them./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""Huh. I call bull. The FBI just doesn't take anyone. You aren't some sort of genius are you?" She countered./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanDamn, she's smart. Brian needed a good excuse, or a distraction. She couldn't have that sort of style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal""That's really all I can say. It's all classified information, the FBI loves red tape on everything." He hoped a small joke would make her realize how nervous he was with all these questions and simply drop it instead. It didn't have a chance to work. Rachel and Bri showed up with their arms full of shopping bags. He offered to help them carry them, hoping for some brownie points with them as well. It worked. Bri gave him a kiss on the cheek and they all headed to dinner./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"Brian turned on his phone to try to find an impressive place. Not surprised, he found 37 texts from Rebecca, 20 phone calls, and 10 voice mails from her alone. If you counted the ones from the rest of his co-workers at the CJC, the numbers would be well into the style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanProbably more if he disappeared for much longer./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"He decided to ignore them and suggest pizza and beer for dinner back at his "apartment" they all style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanA meeting with Naz in the morning would be ok if Ellie decided to spend the night./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"They decided to watch Chuck on Netflix as they at pizza. Chuck pretty much was stuck in a similar life as Brian. He was a no body who was suddenly given a bunch of government secrets in his head, but as a bonus, his handler was also his totally hot girlfriend./p  
p class="MsoNormal" eBy the end of the third episode, Rachel and Bri announced that they were leaving, but Ellie decided to stay claiming she was too tired for the long trip back to their apartment. Bri and Rachel knew better but didn't question it further. Brian knew they would hook up later, and he was so glad his birthday plan for Rachel worked better than expected./p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p 


	5. Ellie

AN: Short chapter, but this is Brian setting up the plan for his next day off.

Also, for my last chapter, I watched Limitless again and Rebecca mentioned that Mike & Ike do not follow Brian around when he isn't on NZT, but for the sake of half the plot I did not change it. I figured it should be like another workday for them and they were following around a national secret instead.

Brian and Ellie hit it off so well thanks to his brilliant plan that they were now dating, and things were great. Ellie even got to meet Rebecca and told her that they were co-workers instead of his handler. A little white lie, but the less she knew, the better. He couldn't imagine what would happen if bad guys knew about her or if worse, Senator Morra found out about his new girlfriend.

Memorial Day was fast approaching and that marked the first beach day of the summer. Eager to see Ellie in a swimsuit and enjoy another day off, Brian had to come up with another plan to get a day off. He got the federal holiday off, but he wanted to take Ellie to Coney Island, which was way less crowded during the week than on a holiday, so he wanted to get the next Tuesday off.

It would be perfect, they would spend the afternoon on the beach (he hated mornings) and they would go on rides in the evening. The weather report did not expect rain, so nothing could go wrong really.

Naz wasn't too hash on him two months ago when he started skipping work, aside from ditching Mike & Ike. There was a lot a yelling, airports stalled flights and all. National secrets at risk, blah, blah, blah. To be honest, he didn't listen. All he could think about was being able to see Ellie again, so his new plan had to be perfect.


	6. Nas on Board

AN: I'm sorry, I forgot where in NY was Brian's safe house, so I had his apartment located in the Village. I know mostly the Chelsea area in NYC so some locations are guesses. My family is from Brooklyn so that is a little more accurate as I mostly grew up near Coney Island.

Since both Brian and Ellie lived in the Village, they decided meet up and take the train together to Brooklyn. Naz was surprisingly ok with having the two go to Coney Island together, the only downside was that Rebecca had to go with them. Luckily Rebecca had already agreed to downplay the handler role of their relationship and talk as little about work as possible.

Brian met Rebecca first. And whoa, was he surprised. Instead of her usual business first attire, Rebecca was dressed in a neon pink tank top that said "not all who wander are lost" and cute pair of cutoff jeans. Wait did he think her outfit was cute? He was with Ellie! He had to focus.

He tried to smile and defect instead. "Woah Rebecca, no suit today?" Jokes usually worked best for him. It worked.

She smiled and replied, "Well I didn't want to get it full of sand for tomorrow so I figured you wouldn't tell Naz I was wearing something casual, and I'm undercover." She smirked. Damn, she's good.

I had to counter her comment with something equally as witty. That's how our conversation usually went. Not out right flirting, but definitely something there.

"I won't tell if you won't tell." And a flash of my pearly whites. Rebecca laughed. Score.

We walked together to catch the F train. Ellie lived in Washington Square so we would catch the N train together there. Hopefully there would be no delays and we would arrive in Coney Island before lunch.

But when Brian and Rebecca arrived to the N train transfer, things definitely got awkward. For one, Brian kept on comparing Ellie to Rebecca, something both rude and unnecessary, but with every little interesting fact she said, he couldn't help but lean in closer in the conversation.

Finally Ellie arrived. She was wearing a cute tie-dye crop top with acid wash jeans. Her hair was as usual, wavy, and a beautiful dirty blonde. They got to the aquarium in Coney Island and decided to make it the first stop. After all, you don't go there every day. A million selfies later, they found a spot in the beach.

Rebecca decided to give the couple some privacy and pretended to nap soon after she applied sunscreen.

Ellie wanted to run into the water and play, so she dragged Brain with her. They splashed water and had a great time. Eventually Ellie got tired and announced that she wanted to sunbath a little and they both agreed to lie in the sun for a little.

As the evening approached he decided it was time to go go-karting. There was a spot right on the boardwalk they can use. As they were all fairly good drivers, it got dull quickly, so they decided to ride Cyclone. It was always opened for Memorial Day and it marked the beginning of a great summer. Cyclone was an older roller coaster, built in 1927 in wood, but it was the beginning of a great adventure.

Dinner was at Nathans'. Nothing special, but it was another important adventure when walking the boardwalk of Coney Island.

Ellie and Rebecca bonded a lot that day. Brian barely listened, but he knew the conversation was mostly based on shoes and clothes. He was happy knowing the two most important women (besides his mother) were content. At the time that was all that mattered.


End file.
